Hi there. My name is Renee. I'm a California girl, professional Scenic Artist, and huge Pearl Jam fan.
Oh yeah, and on June 24th, 2015, I was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer...

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Tomorrow is going to be a big day. I’m going to be undergoing egg retrieval;
which will be an invasive, but hopefully, relatively unremarkable procedure. And then, in about 5 days we will have
several tiny embryos ready to be frozen, so that in a few years I can have a
child with the person whom I passionately love.
I have tried to refrain from teasing Jarrod too much; however, it does
seem like his part in all this will be a lot more enjoyable than mine, albeit
awkward as hell.

We got the final price: $8,600 out the door, plus $900 in a few years on
the other side of the freezer. I knew that
having kids would be expensive, but I've always thought that conception would
be the cheap and easy, fun part.

In other cancer news, I have a start date for chemo: August
6th. I've also done a lot of
shopping... I bought special lotion, special soap, mouthwash, pediatric toothbrushes,
disposable plates and plastic utensils (avoiding contamination and metallic
tastes) and a hands-free soap dispenser. Jarrod
installed a paper towel holder in the bathroom for more germ-free hand washing.
I bought a few head scarves, which I'm
still on the fence about. I ate sushi one last time,
which I will be missing so badly, along with many other raw foods, for six
months. I got a pedicure with the lovely
and talented Jess Minnihan, in order to (fingers crossed) ward off infections and keep
my toenails from falling off, and also (bonus) pretty toes. I still
need to schedule a haircut… I'm avoiding this one for some reason. I think maybe it’s more of an admission than
any of this other stuff, that this is really happening. But I know going for a cute little crop job
now will make things easier if/when it all starts to fall out.

Okay, that's it for now...must get some sleep. Egg-cavation starts very early tomorrow...you see?...you see what I did there? Shut-up, I'm hilarious.